


The Red Guardians

by Blue_Lotus



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Imperial Remnant, Lots of OC - Freeform, More tags as time goes, Multi, New Republic, OC, Post-Canon, So no canon characters around, Sorry Not Sorry, Takes place over century after A New Hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 09:58:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5452565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Lotus/pseuds/Blue_Lotus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She wasn't sure where the trepidation came from. Maybe it was from the crimson color that leapt out of her lightsaber when she ignited it with a snap-hiss. Maybe it was the armor placed in front of her, the reds and blacks that had been synonymous with Darth Sidious' guards for years. There was too much history in that. Perhaps that was the point--the history of it all. To know what had come before, and what the Red Guardians would become.</p><p>(120 years after the events of A New Hope, the new Emperor's Force-Sensitive bodyguards come under their first trial.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Red Guardians

Chapter I: The Armor

Lela Iwun wasn’t entirely sure where the trepidation came from. Maybe it was from the injections still coursing throughout her veins, under her bright red Twi’Lek skin, burning their way into her muscles. Maybe it was from looking at the armor on display in front of her. The glaring red helmet, so reminiscent of the old Red Guards that had served under Sidious, made her skin crawl. The same unease had conjured itself forth when she had activated her new lightsaber for the first time, and with a _snap-hiss_ the crimson blade had sprung forth. When she had seen it, her first instinct had been to throw the lightsaber away. There was too much history there. After some time, she allowed the lightsaber to be worn on her hip. After all, that had been the purpose, the history that was present. The love and loyalty to the Empire, and to its Emperor.

After all, it was only a few years before when she had almost lost the Emperor.

She remembered being on the streets in Jakaran, watching as a menagerie of capital ships dropped into atmosphere (one of threee such fleets). The Imperial fleet that surrounded the two planets of Nadamor and Iriiak had been reduced to waste in seconds, having been damaged in the perpetual raids that had gone on in the weeks prior. Lela had only been in the system in order to perform repairs on the Star Defender _Palleon_. A Force-Sensitive mechanic, and one who had been a member of the Jedi Order for some time, was difficult to come by. In fact, Lela wouldn’t doubt it if she was the only one. But the Force helped her, guided her towards the right points in the systems that needed to be fixed. It was calming work, and came intuitively to her.

So of course, that morning she had woken to the sound and heat of the orbital bombardment.

She had been living several blocks from the Imperial Center, and watched as it crumpled under the blasts. She didn’t remember what she did then. Perhaps she screamed, perhaps she cried. All she knew was that next she was running out of her room, clothes half on and lightsaber (the old one, the blue one) clutched in her hand. She ran into the streets, and saw the ships dropping.

The Imperial Center destroyed (and with it, they later found out, nearly 90% of the Empire’s bureaucratic manpower), the ships focused their attention on the other targets. The ships that had been in ground hangars were quickly coming to defend Nadamor against the invaders, and Lela watched as a haphazard compilation of TIE/LN, XT-1 TIE, VT-49, and even one or two FreiTek E-Wing’s darted out to meet the attackers. Most were annihilated quickly in rapid dashes of turbolaser fire, and not only the remaining energy blasts, but also the ruined husks of the Starfighters, came crashing down around them.

One TIE fighter, wing clipped, crashing into the building next to Lela, collapsing the structure within moments. As the dust billowed out, Lela could hear the cries. Through the passage of time, they seemed more articulate. She almost thought they were calling specifically to her.

She had rushed over to them, started trying to pull them out of the rubble. Few of those she pulled out survived. But one did. And then she heard them gasp, and she looked up.

Even though she didn’t have the title at that moment, it was when she had earned it. When Mariana Hymek brought her ragged fleet out of hyperspace just outside of the range of the invader’s interdiction cruisers, trapped the fleet that was orbiting Iriiak, and convinced the third to come to her own aid, she had, in her own way, become the Emperor.

And when Lela and her reunited, friends long ago separated, after hours of fighting on the ground and in space, Lela knew that Mariana would always have her loyalty. It was at that moment; of course, that Lela had almost lost her Emperor. The assassin’s had timed their shots perfectly, just as Mariana’s bodyguard took one step too many and exposed her side. If it hadn’t been for the Force, and for the gut wrenching feeling that tore through Lela, her lightsaber would not have been brought forth, and the shot would not have been deflected.

Lela looked down at her side. The new lightsaber, clipped to her belt, looked just like the old one had. There would be use of it yet.

 

She put on all of the armor but the helmet. It was comfortable, for the most part, with large portions made up of thick gel layers put between weaves of cloth. The only solid pieces were of a ceramic and cortosis blend, a thick breastplate, pauldrons, gauntlets, and greaves. With those, it breathed easily enough, and was surprisingly lightweight. Of course, some amount of that could have been the earlier drugs that she had been given, designed to enhance all the parts of her body that the Force itself could not. Even with all the advantages that the armor gave; however, it still felt odd on her.

The feeling didn’t go away when she stepped through the door to the waiting room, and saw that Maraina was sitting there alone, a too-proud smile on her face. The taller woman stood, brushed a strand of dark hair away from her brown eyes, and stuck a hand forward. “Well, you look just fine. Needles give you any trouble?”

Lela shook her head. “None of them stuck me in the _lekku_ , so I don’t think that I can complain.” At this, Maraina shook her head, and let out a shiver. “You alright?”

“I’m fine,” Maraina said. “I just can’t imagine how painful that would be.”

“Very. It would be very painful. Even without that, I’m still pretty sore,” Lela said, massaging her elbow were a needle had gone in. Even with the aid of the Force to dull the pain, there was still some there. “Shouldn’t you be at the bridge?” she asked after a moment.

“I most likely should,” Maraina admitted. “But this is historic. To think, in 119 A.B.Y., the Jedi are given an Imperial counterpart.”

“You know, we learned about those back on Ossus. They were called the Sith.”

Maraina chuckled at this. “You know what I mean. Actual counterparts, with similar goals. The same ideals. Besides, wasn’t the idea of the Red Guardians something that you had?” To this, Lela could only shrug. The idea had come a year ago, while drinking with Maraina. Even now, she could hardly believe that it had become reality. “Now come on,” Maraina chuckled, and put her arm on Lela’s shoulder. “Let’s go see what the other hopefuls are like.”

**Author's Note:**

> Some Context: My friends and I decided to start running a Star Wars RPG game starting in 2016 in order to celebrate The Force Awakens being released. The campaign, set over a century after the end of the original trilogy, relies on a large amount of world building that was done from scratch (effectively ignoring the Legends canon except when useful, since I'm a hypocrite). This fic is primarily a way to get into the heads of the various characters, and to better think about the worlds they inhabit. And I figured, why not share it along the way?


End file.
